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Job Interviews

Today I had an unexpected situation while I was interviewing a candidate for a developer role.

We normally start our interviews letting the candidate writing some simple code, in this case, the code was as simple as a method to reverse a string, something that whoever can write almost without thinking. But today the candidate, after the time to do the test expired, strongly complained against this way of making interviews. I must confess that I was completely astonished, I couldn’t believe that a developer complained about a test that required to write code. I mean, it wasn’t like he had to write the heuristics of a garbage collector, he just had to reverse a string.

After explaining him the reasons about why our company does this kind of tests, that this is only a small part of the interview and that we never dismissed a candidate just because the result of the coding tests, he argued that after 5 years of experience he didn’t need to prove he can code, since his CV already proves he is able to work as developer. So, he decided not to continue with the interview.

I understand that it can be annoying to make a test, when you go to an interview you are normally quite nervous and tired after a work journey, so it’s hard to be focused in these situations and the results can be unpredictable. But I think it’s a good start point and we only ask to do what a developer knows best: write code.

I have nothing to say about this candidate, I respect his decision. However, it is so weird that a developer who looks for a job that consists in writing code refuses to proceed with the interview because I ask him to code.

What do you think? Are you also against writing code during job interviews?